Kenna de Poitiers

Kenna de Poitiers (14 December 1542-) was a Scottish noblewoman who served as a lady-in-waiting to Mary, Queen of Scots, as the lover of King Henry II of France, and as the wife of Sebastian de Poitiers.

Biography
Kenna was born in Inverness, Scotland on 14 December 1542, and she came from a rich and noble family. She became a lady-in-waiting to Mary, Queen of Scots during her youth and became one of her closest friends, accompanying her to the French court in 1557. Kenna was approached by King Henry II of France, who had taken a liking to her, but she rebuffed his attempts to make her his mistress, as she valued her virginity and needed to be a virgin in order to marry a man of high station such as Robert, Viscount of Lorraine. Henry II then convinced her that winning his favor would mean that she would be able to have anything she wished, including a marriage; Henry demonstrated this point when Robert agreed that he would marry Kenna without question if the King ordered him to. Kenna went on to become a lover of King Henry, losing her virginity to him at the age of 16. Later, King Henry forced her at swordpoint to marry his illegitimate son Sebastian de Poitiers, and their marriage was not consummated until months later. She became estranged from Sebastian and had an affair with general Vincent Renaude, who was later executed for defecting to the Huguenot cause during the French Wars of Religion.